Musical Focus is No Hocus-Pocus

One skill musicians need to learn is how to focus. In every facet of life learning to focus on one task, or prioritizing high payoff activities is a challenge, especially in the social media world in which we live. Our lives are surrounded by technology, cell phones, instant Facebook notifications, tweets, beeps, and this overload of stimulation makes it a challenge to stay focused.

Research done by Scientific Reports has proven that listening to music you like actually improves focus. It is ironic that the same trait which make musicians creative individuals also work against us in our struggle to FOCUS. Yes, I said it, musicians and artists have a higher incidence of ADD (attention deficit disorder), but does that really surprise you?

Importance of Musical Focus

Musicians tend to fall into one of the following two categories:

Those that maintain their musical focus.

Those that lose their musical focus.

Musicians that possess a bona fide ability to maintain their focus when performing are inclined to play accurately and maintain a high level of musical excellence. These musicians remain poised, relaxed and confident throughout their execution of the music, because they rely upon their training, preparation, composure and ability to remain focused as they navigate comfortably throughout the entirety of the composition.

Alternatively, musicians who for one reason or another have not developed the ability to remain focused during a performance, tend to play inaccurately and are prone to losing their place within the music.

Moreover, when they perform, they are very susceptible to the infamous “crash-and-burn syndrome,” which can totally derail their performance with catastrophic results–something to be avoided at all costs!

In some instances, musicians that fall into this latter category can overcome their lack-of-focus, which often results in performance anxiety and other musical insecurities, with proper training from a skilled professional musician.

In addition to developing more consistent musical focus with the input from an esteemed professional in their field, they need lots of experience performing in front of people in a variety of contexts and venues in order to better solidify this technique.

Passionate about many things including photography, design, family, cooking, friends, and social media. Depending on the day, the order might change, or I might combine one or two.
I am the Mother of two Marines, and as my husband says I can get very passionate about a subject. He likes to say "Who stuck a quarter in you and wound you up?" Most people can only take three quarters of my passion in one day. Hence my slogan "3 Quarters Today"

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About Steve

Steve Raybine is a virtuoso vibraphonist; percussionist; composer/arranger; instructor and clinician. He received degrees from the prestigious Eastman School of Music, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Iowa.